Kevin Xie

Kevin Xie

Penn State University

Analyst

PFM

Overall Rating:
Training:
Internship:
Mentorship:
Career Development:

Review Date: Oct 4, 2019

Experience Prior To The Program

I was a Finance major and had one Finance related internship in China. Before joining the program, I had a general idea of different routes in Financial Industry and was interested in learning about the markets, however was never able to narrow down to a specific route that I want to follow. It was during that period I got a chance to learned about the Analyst Prep Program. My goal before joining to program is to more deeply learn about different career path in market related Finance industry and sharpen my technical skills.

Training Experience

I learned a lot about different career paths in Finance, as well as what investment banker do on a daily basis. What was the most valuable to me were the technical skills I got out of from training, I still utilize those skills in the work I’m performing today. Thanks to the training program, I developed my interest in Equity Research/Credit Research, and learned that is the route I wanted to follow.

The overall internship experience is eye-opening and invaluable in my career development. Although working remotely, I get to work with my colleague on researching specific companies, come up with our own view on the companies, and then have a thorough discussion with mentor, like what a research analyst would do at financial institutions.

Internship Experience

The overall internship experience is eye-opening and invaluable in my career development. Although working remotely, I get to work with my colleague on researching specific companies, come up with our own view on the companies, and then have a thorough discussion with mentor, like what a research analyst would do at financial institutions. The work ethics that I developed through preparing financial models and presentation that leading to the final discussion with the mentor is critical to my day-to-day work nowadays.

Mentorship

I feel like throughout the whole progress, I definitely didn’t utilize one-on-one mentorship enough to my advantages. However, during few of meetings with Luis, I got important career advice out of it.

Career Development

As mentioned above, the technical skills and work ethics I got out of the Analyst Program apply to my work day in and day out. It is the program that help me to stay ahead of my colleague and be one of the top performers in my analyst class.

Final Remarks

For a student that is interested in pursuing a career in market-related financial industry. The program will help you to stay ahead of the competition. Some of the hand on hand learning process is something that you won't get when you are actually in the field.